DAY ONE

I am taking Candice up on her challenge. My consumption has gotten ridiculous, mainly out of habit and "efficiency" and I need to do something about it--for my finances, my waistline, and the rest of the world.

Yesterday was DAY ONE. Unfortunately, I had already made purchases--and unwise ones at that--before Candice put us all up to the challenge.

First of all, I paid my rent. No harm there.

Then came time for lunch. Big mistake. I was running out of groceries at home (or at least that's what I believed) so I went to evil McDonalds for no reason other than, "Hey, it's cheap and fast." I got a chicken nugget meal, with fries and ice tea. I cannot do this anymore!!! While I do plan on occassional trips to Wendy's (my #1 guilty pleasure), my first goal for this month is to FINALLY eliminate (again, save for Wendy's) fast food from my diet--something I have said I was going to do for some time now. But then I'll not buy enough groceries or crave something bad for me and I'll find myself in that drive-thru lane . . .

Besides the obvious badness of fast food, I realize now that all the idling that must be done in the drive-thru lane is not exactly the best thing to be doing--it hurts your gas mileage and also produces more exhaust. So, no more drive-thrus . . . if we make fast food more inefficent, perhaps (some) people will just stop going . . . If I am going to have to get out of my car for "fast" food, I would much rather stop at a grocery store and pick something up.

Then there is the matter of WHAT goes into the fast food . . . even if it is as "high quality" as they say it is, that food is still having to be transported from its point of origin all across the country . . . NOT GOOD.

Hopefully I will stick by this, and keep those thoughts in mind the next time I get those hunger pains. I will remember to stock up on groceries on a regular basis, and buy local when possible.

Total Expenditures: $6.35 (plus rent of $565)